Releasing and Cleansing Samskaras.

So you have a choice: do you want to try to change the world so it doesn't disturb your samskaras, or are you willing to go through this process of purification?  ...  Once you sit deeply enough inside to stop fighting the stored energy patterns, they'll come up constantly and pass right through you. ... your heart will become accustomed to the process of releasing and cleansing...Stay centered behind them and let go.
-Michal Singer , from the untethered soul, page 57

Learning about Shakti , Samskara, Blockages and Healing

I am well into my third reading/studying of the untethered soul, which is proving to be one of those life altering books for me. I somehow see keys to my healing in it.

Upon reading chapter five  and six again, which speak to the idea of infinite energy and the heart as the center of that energy, I find myself in a profound "aha" moment.  I feel compelled to know more about the heart chakra, the chakras in general and about Shakti...this infinite energy that is constantly flowing through us.  I realize that I am so often closing up to it, blocking its flow so I do not live in that state of peaceful, joyful acceptance of life.

Why am I closing?  I am closing, like many of us do, because of some trapped memories within me.  These trapped memories or what Patanjali referred to as impressions or Samskaras...are trapped energy that block and prevent the energy of life from flowing through.

Shakti: the Natural Flow of Joy


Singer teaches in the simple and profound way he does that we are meant to be feeling good: joyful, enthusiastic, and loving. This current of energy is constantly flowing through us and it isn't dependent on the food we eat or the amount of caffeine we put into our bodies.  It is deeper and much greater than the energies we use to power our bodies, vehicles and homes with. It is a constant never ending flow. Yet we don't always feel it because sometimes we close our minds and more importantly our hearts to it. 

Experiencing Internal, Infinite Energy

The internal energy of Shakti (we can call it Chi, spirit energy, life energy etc) can be felt when something happens that excites us.  Say we are feeling down in the dumps, unwell,  exhausted, drained  and  we suddenly  meet the person of our dreams, win the lottery or get a call that we got the job we just applied for.  All of a sudden we feel excited, enthused and on top of the world. We experience a dramatic shift in  that energy upward. 

The energy burst didn't come with the person, the win or the job...we just suddenly opened up to life.  We said yes to life and the Shakti then  just surged through us.  What a wonderful feeling, right?  We want to keep that feeling all the time but the problem is many of us don't.

Why don't we always feel it if we are meant to? 

Sometimes we open up to life and experience it the way it is meant to be for us but too often we also close off the valve that allows the Shakti to flow through. When it doesn't flow through it leads to a blockage of energy that prevents other things from flowing through.  Instead of experiencing  the light, joy and love of life...we may then end up feeling the darkness, the sadness and the dissatisfaction with  life that a blocked energy center  will cause. Yuck. Depression is often a result of blocked energy.

There are a few things happening here that lead us to close.  The first is that we are mistakenly assuming that the  things in the outside world are completely  responsible for what is going on inside of us.  They may trigger an opening or a closing but they aren't responsible.  Our minds are the things that determine if we are open or closed to life and therefore open and closed to the flow.

What is going on in the mind that closes us?

What causes us to close is a clinging and/or a resistance to life experiences that become impressions, memories or Samskara.  Instead of accepting and experiencing life in the natural way by observing with our senses, experiencing fleeting thoughts and feelings without judgment and then releasing them, the mind may decide to cling to or refuse to deal with certain experiences. These experiences  become impressions.  We do not allow them to flow through us. They then leave an impression on us and are stored somewhere in our hearts. 

We may cling to memories of good times we do not want to release and resist the  not so great memories that we do not want to have to deal with.  Mental clinging and resistance are the plague builders in the vessels that Shakti flow through.   They close us off.

A Desire to Resist Pain and Cling to the Comfortable

All energy is meant to flow through us. All life experiences are meant to flow through us naturally and easily, bringing joy, peace and love as they do, regardless of what is actually happening on the outside. The mind sometimes gets in the way of that flow. When life happens as it does, we may "perceive"  pain in a given experience.  Something in the mind that wants to keep it stable and protected resists the painful or uncomfortable experience. We exert energy into pushing it aside or in most cases down through repression and suppression.

Pain Gets Stored Away; It Doesn't go Away

The pain may go out of sight but it doesn't go away.  It gets stored somewhere and that place is usually in the heart: the  seat of our emotions. Our resistance to life in that moment then leads to a blockage of energy. We don't experience Shakti because it  is prevented from flowing through us.  All because we said" no"  to life in a given moment. As long as we have those Samskaras stuck inside us, this energy can not flow in the way it was meant to.

So we have these painful memories  within our heart and consciously we may not be aware of them.  We stuffed them away out of sight.  But what happens when something triggers that memory?  Like a smell, an image, a verbal reminder?  The energy that is stored away comes up suddenly and it wants to be experienced.  It wants to be expressed.  It wants to be released. But what does the mind do?

Triggered Samskara

 Feeling the inklings of remembered discomfort, the mind  stuffs down the impression again  and at the same time pushes aside the moment life is giving us as a gift. We say no to the pain.  We say no to that moment. We say no to life and we close. All energy then  goes into resisting instead of accepting and allowing the flow to work its way through us.  We are once again closing off the Shakti because we are closing our heart . 

Too many of us refuse to experience the pain even if it is only trapped in a memory, a mental modification, a thought. We refuse to release and therefore shut out the potential for healing and the potential for the joy, light and love that is waiting for us.

We did this to us.  Life didn't!

So what do we do with these trapped Samskaras, if we truly want to heal? 

1. Stop blaming Life.  Accept that it isn't Life that is making you happy or unhappy.  It is your mind.  Own that and go to the mind to heal the heart.
2. Accept each moment and allow it to pass through you.
3. Be willing to go through the process of purification and healing from old remembered wounds.  Like many of you, I have stored trauma that needs to be dealt with.  My fear of dealing with that pain  is blocking the flow of Life energy through me.  It is actually hurting my heart. I am finally willing to "go through the process of purification".  Are you there yet?
4. Accept pain.  Patanjali discusses the need to accept pain as part of the purification process in sutra 1; Book 2.  If we accept pain or discomfort as a natural part of Life, without judging it, resisting it or clinging to comfort we will stay open to the natural flow of Life through us.  We will not block the Shakti.  Pain does not block us.  Our resistance of it and our clinging to what we perceive as comfortable does. This  stops us from accepting each  moment for what it is...and makes us say "no" to it.  When we say 'no' to one moment we say 'no' to life.  We close our heart to it.
5. Relax.  We need to relax the body and the mind so healing can take place.  Yoga (Hatha) can help relax the body and open up the energy channels. Meditation can relax the mind and allow us "to sit deeply enough inside to stop fighting  the stored energy patterns".
6. Allow the heart  to release and cleanse.  Once we stop fighting them, the Samskaras will rise to the surface of our awareness.  It is only there where they can be released once and for all  and the channels for energy flow can be cleansed.
7. Stay Centered.  Stay in your true seat and watch as these impressions  pass through you. Let go.
8. Don't Close.  Once we are purified we can refuse to close again.

All is well in my world.

References


Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011) The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga Publications

Michael Singer. (2007) the untethered soul . Oakland: New Harbinger